The invention relates to a sliding roof or sliding lifting roof for motor vehicles.
In known sliding roofs and sliding lifting roofs, lateral guide rails are fitted to the top of a roof frame projecting into a roof cutout area and are therefore also located within the latter. As a result of this construction, the outer roof cutout is much larger and at least wider than the inner roof opening in the vehicle top, which also covers the roof frame parts projecting into the roof cutout. Thus, in the known roof constructions, the roof cutout size is not completely utilized for obtaining a maximum overall roof opening. In other words, the known roof constructions, for a given size of the inner roof opening in the vehicle top, require a much larger outer roof cutout in the fixed vehicle roof.
A further problem occurring with sliding roofs and particularly sliding lifting roofs is the relatively large overall height of the roof construction, which so restricts the head clearance in the vehicle interior, that it is difficult or impossible to equip modern, low vehicle bodies with a sliding or sliding lifting roof. Particularly sliding lifting roof constructions designed for high speeds and which to this end have an intermediate frame engaging below the roof cutout edges (e.g. German Patent No. 30 20 675) have an increased overall height due to the fitting of the intermediate frame.